Outside the Beltway

The National Debt has passed $21,000,000,000,000 for the first time in history just as the nation begins its return to the era of trillion dollar budget deficits.

Joe Crowley, widely considered in line to replace Nancy Pelosi as party leader in the House, has been defeated.

A new survey shows that Americans are increasingly unable to tell the difference between fact and opinion. That’s a problem.

The President continues to enjoy enthusiastic support from the over-65 set.

The Trump Administration is declining to defend the Affordable Care Act in Court, arguing that the individual mandate is now unconstitutional because the tax penalty has been eliminated.

Has the party paid too big a price to attract suburban voters?

Republicans are claiming that Conor Lamb won Tuesday’s Special Election in Pennsylvania because he campaigned as a conservative. These people are either deluded or lying.

Dave Schuler argues the US would have a much better healthcare system if we had modeled it on VA clinics rather than private insurance.

Republicans spent the eight years of Obama Administration railing against fiscal irresponsibility. Now that they have power, they’re the ones being fiscally irresponsible.

Congress seems likely to pass a budget deal today that will massively increase spending, putting to rest once and for all the rank hypocrisy of Republicans when it comes to claims that they are “fiscally conservative.”

Embattled New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez has dodged a bullet, but still faces uncertain prospects for reelection.

A longstanding claim—that I myself believed to be true—is that spending money on preventative care like regular checkups would save money in the long run by catching health issues before they become acute. The evidence does not support this.

New Jersey Senate Bob Menendez has temporarily dodged a bullet, but his ultimate fate is far from clear.

Stephen Paddock’s crime was clearly terrorizing, and will impact the lives of survivors, families, first responders in many ways for a long time. Based on the currently available evidence, though, the Las Vegas shooting was not “terrorism.”

Trump loses his HHS Secretary amid a growing scandal involving the use of private and government jets by Cabinet officials.

Sixteen Senators are backing a single-payer system. Another forty-four to go.

Perhaps it’s time to consider getting rid of the debt ceiling entirely.

As Congress heads back to work, a corruption trial in New Jersey could have big implications for what happens on Capitol Hill.

Kamala Harris has joined Bernie Sanders’ call for creation of a single-payer healthcare system.

Seven years of rhetoric on health care reform ended early this morning with a narrow vote on a bill that even Republicans didn’t really support.

Senate Republicans have introduced their latest version of a plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.

The Senate GOP’s effort to ‘repeal and replace’ the Affordable Care Act is headed for a bumpy ride.

The Senate is back from its recess, but no closer to a health care bill that has any realistic chance of passing.

A big setback for Republican efforts to ‘repeal and replace’ Obamacare.

In addition to everything else on its plate, Congress will have to revisit raising the debt ceiling again sometime this summer.

This was one for the history books.

The failure of the AHCA shows that Donald Trump doesn’t know the slightest thing about leadership or how to be President.

The president’s skinny budget would eliminate most funding for science and the arts to fund more Defense spending.

Part Two in a series of observations about health care and health insurance in light of the introduction of the House GOP’s health care plan. This post examines several ideas advanced by conservatives, and the reasons they aren’t complete answers to the problems we face.

Part One in a series of observations about health care and health insurance in light of the introduction of the House GOP’s health care plan.

Health care policy analysts seem united in their assessment of the House GOP’s replacement for the Affordable Care Act, and it’s overwhelmingly negative.

Reports indicate that President Trump will seek to increase military spending. We don’t need to, and we can’t really afford it.

Budget hawks in the GOP face a showdown with Donald Trump’s spending ambitions this year that will likely decide whether we’ll ever get spending under control.

Backers of the losing candidate for the Democratic nomination are surprised that they’re not getting their way.

Bernie Sanders won another primary last night, but he continues to fall behind in the race for delegates nonetheless.

Five months after becoming Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan seems to be running into some of the same difficulties that John Boehner did.

As expected, Hillary Clinton won big last night while Bernie Sanders largely floundered, thus going further toward making Clinton’s victory inevitable.

Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders clashed in the final debate before the Iowa Caucuses in the context of a race that has appeared to become tighter than it was before Christmas.

After oral argument today in a high profile case, it appears likely that public employee unions are likely to suffer a major legal defeat later this year.

The Supreme Court is now considering a case that deals with the problem of overly broad civil asset forfeiture laws and a Defendant’s right to counsel under the Sixth Amendment.

As expected, the Senate easily passed the two-year budget deal early this morning.

With only a handful of opposition, Paul Ryan was easily elected the 62nd Speaker of the House.

Compromise is simply necessary for the country to function.

Paul Ryan is blasting the process that led to the new budget deal between the GOP and the White House, but one suspects he’s secretly quite pleased with the fact that it makes his job-to-be a lot easier.

Congress and the White House have reached a tentative deal on the budget and debt ceiling that promises to make Paul Ryan’s initial months as Speaker a lot easier.

Paul Ryan has yet to say if he will run for Speaker of the House, but that hasn’t stopped the opposition on the hard right from forming already.

Yes, Ben Carson’s comments about the debt ceiling are silly, but it’s the fact that a lot of Republicans agree with him that’s dangerous.

With the last legal hurdle to Obamacare cleared, “death panels” have made a quiet comeback.